Is IoT Data Mining Part of Your Digital Facility Transformation?

By Michael Skurla

If you are operating or managing automated multi-site facilities,
then you know collecting data from all the building systems across your distributed
facilities is a challenging necessity. The
proliferation of data from IoT devices has offered massive automation
opportunities. Harnessing IoT data mining across your portfolio of sites can be
a critical success factor for an enterprise. Why? Harnessing data from your IoT
devices for actionable analytics will drastically reduce your operational
expenses and energy usage and increase facilities’ efficiency.

What in the world is IoT?

The Internet of Things, or IoT, is a
wide range of interrelated computing devices–from mechanical and digital
machines, to your refrigerator, your thermostat, your phone–that transfer data
and information over networks. And they don’t need humans or computers to
necessarily arbitrate this information.

IoT
proliferation is here to stay and grow. In fact, Business
Insider forecasts that by 2025 there will be
over 64 billion IoT devices in operation. This includes a multitude of objects and devices
from cars (by 2020, 90% of cars will be connected to the
Internet) to cellular IoT connectivity which by 2023, according to the Ericsson
Mobility Report, will be at 3.5 billion.

IoT products flooding today’s market
are confusing. Especially for figuring out the actual application of these
technologies and integrating them with existing legacy systems in a building
infrastructure. Most commercial facilities and buildings today use a
combination of subsystems that operate in autonomous silos. With IoT technology
emergence exasperating data collection and monitoring, commercial facility
operators and owners can reap greater outcomes by integrating new technological
advances, like IoT devices, into their existing systems.

But the benefits can only be
leveraged across multiple ecosystems within the infrastructure when buildings
and facilities can tap into data from multiple trades. These systems can then work
in unison to lower capital expenditures while increasing technological services
within a commercial facility. They
simplify O+M over the lifecycle of a facility.

Can’t Afford to Ignore IoT Data

The practical definition of IoT in the
constructed world defines how a network of sensory players in a building
enterprise interact and generate data. Take, for instance, the pivotal role in
data collection from building management systems and individual control
solutions–from lighting, HVAC, security, etc. All of these are sensory players
offering critical data that could be valuable to other trades, as well as offer
insight into collective operation if viewed together.

By 2021 the flood of data
generated from IoT will reach 850 zettabytes [Source: Cisco]. While IoT
connectivity generates data floods, only enterprises using tools to collect,
organize, and deliver the data can reap actionable analytics to make sound
business decisions.

Missing from legacy
Industrial IoT, BMS, SCADA, and monitoring solutions is the capability to
collect and normalize data across large geographical footprints in a simple and
scalable fashion. This
is critical for multi-site commercial facility owners who need to capture
untapped IoT and facility data from distributed sites and IoT devices.

IoT Platforms to Rescue

IoT platforms are the information technology market’s solution for
collecting diverse data at massive scale. They are simple to install and can extract
data from various in-building protocols and subsystems. With a nimble setup and
an EDGE appliance wired to a
port, IoT platforms offer open communications with a cloud infrastructure, and allow
for remote management, provisioning, and monitoring. Facility IT operators save
time, money, and effort while gaining efficient, cost-effective operations.

With an IoT platform deployed, commercial building and facilities’
operators:

Need not rely on costly on-site
commissioning of monitoring systems.

Gain a single pane of glass approach
to all subsystems and technology at the edge.

Can access a single source of truth of
data on a portfolio for analytics, alarming, AI, reporting, or custom
applications from a cloud location.

With multiple subsystems, and the growing number of IoT sensing
devices and other technologies crowding the enterprise infrastructure, facility
operators can easily leverage data between diverse systems using an IoT
platform. They can eliminate duplications–enable one sensor to provide all the
data without separate wiring, programming, and monitoring systems.

Once all the data is collected from multiple sites, and stored in
the cloud, facility operators can leverage the data’s value with Micro-service Analytics and
visualization engines. These tap
organized data-lakes, provided by the IoT platform, transform the data into
context-specific outcomes and actionable recommendations to reduce energy use, utilize
available real estate space for additional revenues, use traffic patterns for
supply chain and more.

Layered on top of the existing and siloed systems, IoT platforms highly
enhance the performance competency of the silos. They leverage and store every
bit of relevant data from various sources to provide a consolidated “truth” for
outcome based analytics tailored to specific business needs.

Think of IoT platforms as lifelines for existing building
technologies and business operations. Sources that bring to life facility data for
a greater purpose while generating meaningful outcomes beyond just the physical
building operations. By aggregating valuable, and previously unavailable information,
facility operators can be equipped with analytics and visualization data to better
manage multiple sites and increase their bottom line.

Automated, digitized facilities are the present and the future of
our facilities’ world. To remain competitively profitable, facility owners and
operators can’t afford to lose out on harnessing valuable, critical and actionable
data from IoT devices.

Michael C. Skurla is Director of Product Strategy for BitBox USA, which
offers a single,
simple and secure IoT platform solution for enterprises to collect,
organize and deliver distributed data sets from critical infrastructure with a
simple-to-deploy Edge appliance with secure cloud access.